


Unnatural Selection.

by steeleye



Series: It's Grim Up North. [22]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ultimate Force (TV)
Genre: Gen, Humour, action adventure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-15 10:23:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13611390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye
Summary: A 'Grim Up North' story: “There is nobody out there to help you. No one is on your side.” Staff Sergeant Hanno Garvie of the SAS, let Buffy know what she was in for, “Never forget that no matter how cold, wet, starving or dead on your feet you are, there is far worse to come.” Buffy didn't realise how prophetic those words would be.





	1. Chapter 1

Unnatural Selection.

By Steeleye.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Ultimate Force. I write these stories for fun not profit.

 **Crossover:** Ultimate Force.

 **Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar:** Written in glorious English-English which is different to American-English.

 **Timeline:** A Grim Up North 2 story set in, September 2006.

 **Words:** Five chapters of 3000+ words.

 **Warnings:** Some strong language, particularly in the last chapter.

 **Summary:** A 'Grim Up North' story: “There is nobody out there to help you. No one is on your side.” Staff Sergeant Hanno Garvie of the SAS, let Buffy know what she was in for, “Never forget that no matter how cold, wet, starving or dead on your feet you are, there is far worse to come.” Buffy didn't realise how prophetic those words would be.

0=0=0=0

**Stirling Barracks, Hereford, England.**

The Killing House had been fun, Buffy reminded herself. It had also been the place where she'd admitted to herself that maybe, just maybe, the SAS could teach her something. The Killing House was a typical, UK, two story town house, built out on one of the SAS's training areas where they could practice hostage rescue techniques in peace. One or two members of a team would pretend to be hostages while the rest of the team (or 'Troops' as the SAS called them) would assault the house and rescue the hostages. It was all very spectacular with real explosions and live ammunition being fired off all over the place.

Having watched one assault as the hostage (Buffy'd been tied to a chair in an upstairs bedroom), she'd thought that it had all looked so easy. After all she was the slayer, she had superior strength, agility, reactions and she could shoot and hit any target with any weapon. The first time she assaulted the house she shot one of the hostages by mistake. Luckily the 'hostage' had only been a dummy, Staff Sergeant Garvie (the man in charge of her training) had thought something like this might happen and he'd replaced the live hostage with a dummy one. The thing was that he'd not told her and just for a moment she'd thought she'd killed a real live person.

Just for a moment, Buffy realised how Faith must have felt after killing the Deputy Mayor in Sunnydale; she felt the same guilt, she had the same excuses and she told herself that it it wasn't her fault. When Henno Garvie told her the truth she'd rushed outside and thrown-up in the bushes. After that Buffy started to really listen to what she was being told. Admitting to herself that she'd been a little arrogant for the previous couple of days (after all she was the slayer what could 'ordinary' people possibly teach her?), she settled down and started to learn.

Back in July, the Cleveland Centre in Middlesbrough (near where Slayer Central was located in Saltburn-by-the-Sea) had been taken over by aliens. Buffy had been inside the Centre with a party of young slayers at the time. After getting the teen slayers and as many people out of the building as possible, she'd done her best to fight back. But she was only one slayer armed with a kitchen knife and there'd been a lot of aliens with body armour and ray-guns.

Eventually the local police tried to retake the building from the invaders. The police Armed Response Units had been cut down by the alien's ray guns and the attack had ended in a bloody shambles. It was then that the government decided to send in the SAS. The helicopter assault onto the roof of the Centre and the simultaneous attack into the basement car parking areas had been a total success. This was due in no small way to the help given by Faith, Kennedy, Willow and Dawn who'd attacked the basement along with the SAS's very own slayer, Maggie McBride. Buffy herself had joined in with the roof assault and between them, the slayers and SAS had totally eliminated the alien threat and Willow had closed the portal that the aliens had used to travel to Earth.

Very shortly after the Cleveland Centre incident, Buffy had been approached by Colonel Dempsey, the commanding officer of the SAS, with a suggestion. The idea was that a limited number of slayers should spend two or three weeks working with the SAS just in case they ever had to work together again. The British security services had always been aware of the old Council of Watchers and the existence of slayers. In fact over the years there'd been a certain amount of mutual assistance extended between the organisations. However it never went very far as the security services had a 'hands off' approach to the supernatural preferring to leave the nether-world threat to the council.

When the old Council had been destroyed, the security services had set up the same sort of understanding with the new 'Slayer Organisation'. Yes there'd been some rough patches, like when Buffy had been thrown into prison after being framed by one of the Government Ministries that had wanted to ruin a perfectly good working relationship and take complete control of the slayers. However, with the help of MI5, Buffy had eventually received a full pardon and a large amount of compensation for being wrongfully imprisoned.

For quite some time everyone had got along well enough passing each other pieces of information that the other might find useful. Until the day a bunch of alien psychopaths decided to attack a shopping mall and start killing people. It was then that the security services and the Slayer Organisation found themselves helping each other out in a much more 'hands on' way than they ever had before.

This was why Buffy now found herself standing cold and naked in the middle of a large, drafty hanger waiting to be told her fate. Having completed two weeks of familiarisation with SAS methods, Buffy was now going on a combat survival exercise. Over the next thirty-six to forty-eight hours she would have to use everything she'd learnt and all her slayer powers to avoid being captured. On the other hand the SAS and their Parachute Regiment 'friends' had to try and catch her.

You might think that as Buffy had evaded the Initiative's teams so easily, the next couple of days would be a cake walk. But as Henno Garvie had pointed out, the Initiative's troops sounded like (in his words) 'a bunch of wankers'. The SAS also had their very own slayer in the shape of, Sergeant Maggie McBride who'd not only spent some time helping train slayers at Slayer Central, but she'd also been Buffy's lover for a couple of weeks after Buffy had got out of prison and during the infamous, 'everyone's gay' period.

Hearing soft footsteps behind her, Buffy resisted the temptation to turn around to see who it was, the exercise had already started and she knew she was being watched and she thought it best not to give away just how sensitive her hearing really was. The footsteps stopped right behind her, she guessed from their lightness that it was a woman, probably Maggie.

“Buffy,” Buffy had been right it was Maggie, “I have to make this quite clear...make sure you really understand, that you _do not_ have to do this.” Maggie explained, “You're not in the Army and even if you were you can back out now, you've got nothing to prove.”

“Yes I have,” Buffy replied quietly, “I've got to prove that I'm better than you guys.”

“Okay,” Maggie sighed, “if that's the way you want it.”

Feeling Maggie step away from her, Buffy heard a heavier set of footsteps approach from behind her. After walking around Buffy, Henno Garvie came to a halt about three yards in front of her. He was dressed in jeans, hiking boots and a camouflaged jacket. He was a stocky man of about average height, with short almost shaved hair and hard eyes. He looked at Buffy with something close to contempt.

“Alright,” Henno said quietly, “put your kit on.”

With an almost audible sigh of relief, Buffy bent to pick up the clothes that had been lying at her feet. The clothes consisted of an old British army uniform, much like the one she'd worn when she'd gone back in time to 1945. The underwear was made for a man and there was no bra, the trousers were too big as was the hairy, scratchy shirt and short battledress jacket. There were socks with big holes in them and the huge, old style, army boots had no laces. The greatcoat was so big on her that it dragged along the ground, however it did make her feel warmer than she had since she'd arrived at the hanger after being tasered and tossed out of bed at five o'clock that morning with no breakfast.

“Two weeks ago,” Henno began as Maggie walked over to stand next to him, “when you arrived here you were an arrogant little bitch who thought she knew it all,” Henno grinned maliciously, “But that's all changed now, hasn't it? You settled down to learn and you've done well...good work.” He admitted grudgingly, “But it'll all be for nothing unless you can get through the next few days of combat survival.”

Henno walked over to where Buffy stood and handed her a small tin box. Opening the sealed lid Buffy found it contained, a map printed on a piece of cloth. A small button sized compass, two water proof matches, five ten pence pieces taped together in a short stack and a condom; she really didn't think that under the circumstances she'd need this last, but it would be useful to carry water in. After handing over her 'survival supplies' Henno backed off and started to explain what was going to happen.

“You have in excess of one-hundred miles to cover,” Henno paused to let that sink in, “There is nobody out there to help you. No one is on your side.” again Henno paused so Buffy could appreciate exactly what she'd let herself in for, “Never forget that no matter how cold, wet, starving, or dead on your feet you are, there is one thing you can depend on...” Buffy decided that Henno was a man who enjoyed his work. “...there is far worse to come.”

Henno smirked to himself as he watched Buffy's face for any reaction, he was impressed when she didn't show any. He knew she'd be a hard target, but he'd been one of the instructors on Maggie's selection course. He'd hunted a slayer before and he hoped he knew what to expect.

“You will be hunted down by members of the Parachute Regiment,” Henno continued, “they have night vision goggles, thermal imagers, tracker dogs, helicopters and just for you Miss Summers, tasers,” Henno smiled. “As we will not be pulling any punches we don't expect you to either.” A really wide grin split Henno's face, “But we would appreciate it if you tried not to kill anyone and didn't break too many bones!”

“There are two ways this will end,” Maggie now took up from where Henno had left off, “One; you quit. Two; you make it.” Maggie paused for just a moment as she remembered her own combat survival exercise; it had been tough but not that tough...physically, it had been the mental effort to keep going and it was the temptation to quit that she'd found hard to resist. “You will know it's over when, and only when, someone with a white armband on their left arm says it is...”

“Fail to make your RVs,” Henno was speaking once more, “or crack under interrogation...”

“Interrogation?” Buffy squeaked, “No one said anything about interrogation!”

“Tough,” Henno replied coldly before continuing, “crack under interrogation and you will have failed and you'll have to live with your inadequacies for the rest of your miserable life.”

“No pressure then,” Buffy muttered.

“Survive,” Henno decided to end on a happier note, “and you can hold your head high knowing that you've survived everything the best in the world can throw at you...now, MOVE!”

Before Buffy actually had a chance to move, she was hit by a jolt of electricity that made her feel numb all over and lose control of her arms and legs. Just as she started to fall to the hard concrete floor of the hanger, half a dozen rough pairs of hands grabbed her. Suddenly there were men in camouflaged uniforms yelling abuse at her and dragging her towards a Land Rover parked just outside the hanger. Henno had been right these guys weren't pulling any punches as she found out when she was punched in the ribs and kidneys. Luckily the huge, heavy uniform she was wearing saved her from the worst of the beating.

Just as she was starting to get the feeling back in her arms and legs, Buffy found herself being bundled into the back of the Land Rover. Lying in an undignified heap on the floor of the cargo bay, she saw the soldiers laughing at her as they laced up the canvas cover at the rear of the vehicle. When they'd finished, she found herself in the dark with no way of seeing outside. Moments later she heard someone get into the front seat and start the engine. A couple of seconds after that she felt the Land Rover lurch as it moved off and out of the camp. After pausing at what was probably the camp's gate, Buffy felt the vehicle turn onto what her ears told her was a main road.

0=0=0=0

After what felt like hours but was probably no more than forty-five minutes (they'd taken away her watch so she'd lost track of time), the Land Rover came to a halt. Hearing the driver's door open, Buffy waited for her next little surprise; after all, things had been really fun up to now so who knew what would happen next? The footsteps stopped at the rear of the vehicle and Buffy heard someone untie the canvas cover to her prison. Blinking in the light, she saw Henno throw back the cover and step away from the rear of the vehicle.

“Right, out you get!” he ordered.

Slowly Buffy climbed out of the Rover and found they were parked on a muddy track in a wood, a light rain fell from a grey sky and she wondered, not for the first time, why she was doing this.

“There's another instructor down the track,” Henno pointed further into the wood, “who will give you your grid reference for your first RV.”

With a heavy sigh, Buffy started to make her way along the track. Her too big boots made walking difficult and she decided she needed some boot laces. In fact she'd not gone more than a few yards when she saw a length of twine hanging from a broken down fence at the side of the track. Stepping off the track she grabbed the twine, after rolling it up around her hand she stuffed it in the pocket of her coat; already her survival training was paying off. There had to be a good five or six feet of twine, more than enough to make some laces for her boots.

Coming on an abandoned army truck, Buffy stopped to look around this was obviously where she was supposed to meet the instructor with the map references, yet there was no one around. Just as she was thinking that maybe she should walk on a little further, she heard a yell from her right. Turning quickly and falling into a fighting crouch, she saw a dozen soldiers in camouflage uniforms and maroon berets charge towards her. These looked like the guys who'd zapped her at the hanger, Buffy smiled, time for some payback!

The soldiers were no more than a couple of yards away when Buffy was hit by a taser from behind. This time round the charge of electricity seemed much heavier. Completely losing control of her muscles, she fell to the muddy ground totally at the mercy of the soldiers as they pounced on her. This time the beating she received was much more serious than the one she'd got in the hanger. Several men stood round kicking her in the body and legs. Next she felt herself being pulled to her feet, her arms were pinioned behind her back while someone used her stomach as a punching bag. Just as Buffy thought she was going to throw up a whistle sounded twice and the beating stopped while the soldier who'd been holding her up let her go, allowing her to fall to the ground. Coughing and spluttering as she lay in the mud, Buffy felt the feeling come back to her extremities, but really wished it hadn't. Looking up again she saw Henno Garvie staring down at her.

“All right,” Henno shouted, “that's enough! Summers, back in the Rover,” he jerked his head back towards where the Land Rover was parked.”

Stumbling back down the track, Buffy promised herself that was the last time anyone was going to trap her again with the taser trick. Next time she'd show them what a slayer could do. After climbing back into the rear of the Rover, she saw Henno grinning at her evilly.

“That,” Henno explained, “is just a taste of what's to come if you get caught, but next time there'll be no whistle,” leaving the canvas cover over the back of the Rover open he handed Buffy a watch, “you'll need that to make sure you get to your RV on time...unless you want to quit now?”

“Yeah right,” Buffy spat some mud and blood out of her mouth, “like that's ever going to happen.”

“Look,” Henno said reasonable, “you don't have to do this, you've nothing to prove. Why don't you save yourself a lot of pain and me a lot of bother and give up now?”

“Get outta here,” Buffy laughed in his face.

“Didn't think you would, you're just like Maggie was,” Henno smirked, “but don't say I didn't warn you...”

0=0=0=0

On another track several miles away, a convoy of six civilian vehicles made their way slowly through the forest until they came to a large clearing where they pulled off the track and parked up. Almost as soon as the vehicles had come to a halt, men started to climb from the back's of the Transit Minibuses that made up five of the convoy's vehicles. The men were dressed in a mixture of camouflage and civilian clothing, some wore turbans while all wore good hiking boots and most had small ruck sacks on their backs.

After milling around for a few minutes they started to drift over to the only car in the convoy. Collecting around the vehicle they waited as a man in a cheap suit and what looked like a brightly coloured tea-towel around his head climbed out of the front passenger seat and held open the rear passenger door.

The woman who climbed out of the back of the car was tall, beautiful and wore an expensive silk head scarf over her long dark hair. Smiling and waving as the crowd of men cheered her appearance and pressed in to get closer to her, she stepped carefully away from the car being cautious not to get mud on her richly embroidered green sari.

“Brothers,” called Ahme, High Priestess of the Goddess Kaili, she held up her hand for quiet; slowly the crowd settled down to listen to what the high priestess had to say, “Today we will exact terrible vengeance on the Slayer Organisation and teach them not to stand against the Dark Goddess....” Ahme waited until there was total silence before speaking again, “...today we will kill Buffy Summers!”

0=0=0=0


	2. Chapter 2

2.

**A forest somewhere in England.**

“In the name of Preverti,” Ahme cried joyously, “daughter of the mountains, whose embrace with Rani made the whole world tremble.”

“Tremble!” the congregation chanted as one.

“Tremble,” Ahme repeated as she raised her arms to the sky; unlike the old (and now very dead) High Priest Clang, she believed that a religious service should be a happy, joyous thing, she'd also got rid of the ceremonial robes and masks, “Whose name is the Terrible. Whose name is Baleful. Whose name is Inaccessible. Whose name is the Black Mother, mother of darkness.”

At a signal from Bhuta, two strong members of the congregation dragged the bound and gagged sacrifice towards where the High Priestess stood waiting, sacrificial dagger in hand. This was something else that the High Priestess had changed, the sacrifice no longer had to come from the congregation itself. As a result of this simple change in the rules, temple attendance had gone up by 37.5% and the number of followers of Kaili was now 53% greater than what it had been in Clang's day.

“Kaili!” chanted the congregation as the men forced the sacrifice to her knees while another man grabbed hold of her long, black, hair and pulled her head back roughly to expose her throat.

“We turn our hearts to Kaili,” the High Priestess held the dagger above her head ready to strike the fatal blow, “Drinker of blood, Black Mother...”

“Kaili!” Chanted the congregation once more.

“...Killer of demons,” Ahme continued stepping towards the terrified girl as she gripped the knife tightly in preparation for bringing the girl's short life to a swift and bloody end, “gorge on this flesh, our offering...DRINK!”

Bringing the knife down in a powerful cross cut, Ahme slit the girl's throat, stepping back she wasn't quite quick enough to avoid being sprayed with blood.

“Damn-it!” Ahme snapped as she looked down at her blood stained sari, now she understood why the old high priests had always worn robes.

“You better take that off so I can soak it in cold water,” Bhuta whispered in her ear hopefully.

Torn between saving her sari and getting on with the killing of Buffy Summers, Ahme passed the bloody sacrificial knife to Bhuta. Looking down at the girl as her life's blood ebbed away into the mud, Ahme sighed sadly, it looked like she'd need to buy a new sari and perhaps reintroduce robes, at least for outdoor sacrifices.

“There is no time for that now,” Ahme announced as she swept away from the site of the sacrifice, “there are more important things to do.”

Walking over to stand by a blackboard and easel, Ahme gestured to the map that had been pinned to the board, holding out her hand she waited for Bhuta to pass her a pointer.

“Brothers,” Ahme called drawing the attention of the congregation away from the sacrifice and towards her; she tapped the map with her pointer, “this is the area being used by the SAS for their exercise, as you can see it is hilly and heavily forested.” Lowering her arm, Ahme let her eyes roam over the eager faces of the congregation, “As it is a weekday and the weather is not so good,” she cast her eyes heavenward towards the grey sky and sighed heavily; the congregation laughed quietly, “we shouldn't be troubled by hikers walking in the forest, however...” Ahme paused to make sure she had everyone's attention, “...we still need to be careful not to become involved with the soldiers who are also hunting the demon Summers.”

There were loud mutterings of agreement from the congregation, they weren't there to fight the army, they were there to hunt and kill the Great-She-Demon and Leader of Demons, Buffy Summers. It had been 'She' and her sister demons plus their loathsome, perverted Priestess who had prevented the sacrifice of the She-demon's sister while at the same time killing the old High Priest, Clang and many of the congregation who had died trying to defend the temple.

Of course, Ahme didn't believe that Buffy Summers was a 'She-demon' and the senior Summers had done nothing more than save her sister from a bloody death on the alter stone. After all hadn't Ahme done the same thing? Hadn't she 'lost' the sacrificial ring, without which the sacrifice couldn't be completed, thus saving her own sister from an early death. The story she told the congregation was just a useful lie to get them to do what she wanted. If Buffy Summers and her slayers were allowed to continue to hunt the leadership of the cult, the Followers of Kaili would soon be without a High Priestess to stand between them and their goddess and tell them what to do.

“Remember brothers,” Ahme called in a strong, clear voice, “it is only the blood of the She-demon, Buffy Summers that must be spilt today,” she paused again, “Also remember that the demon may look like a short, blonde, helpless and not overly intelligent young woman...BUT!” The congregation gasped at Ahme's sudden shout, “Remember she is a fiend incarnate, possessed of infernal strength, agility and speed. Remember that she is skilled in the use of weapons, so never face her alone, always wait until there is enough of the congregation close by to be sure of destroying her.” Ahme watched the faces of the congregation and decided it was time to be a little more up beat, “Remember also, brothers that all those here today will bask in the glory of the Goddess for all eternity...also...” Ahme smiled, “...any that are there at the death of the She-demon will be rewarded both in life and death!”

A great cheer arose from the congregation and someone started to sing, 'For she's a Jolly good High Priestess'. Embarrassed by all the adulation, Ahme smiled shyly and waved to the crowd. When the congregation finally finished their song with three rousing cheers, Ahme held up her hands for quiet.

“Please brothers,” Ahme laughed, “thank-you for you display of confidence in me, however I could not have done this without help. First,” she gestured to a young man standing nearby, “it is only thanks to the hard work of Brother Aziz that we know the location of the She-demon today...” Ahme looked proudly at Brother Aziz as she started to clap her hands; quickly the congregation joined in and Brother Aziz blushed at all the attention.

“Now,” Ahme continued as the applause started to fade, “I want you to collect your weapons from Brother Abdul and do not forget to collect your maps and your assigned patrol areas from Intermediate Priest Bhuta...good luck Brothers...” Ahme called as she turned towards her car where she kept a fresh sari, “...and good hunting!”

0=0=0=0

The Land Rover came to a halt on the edge of a large open area in the midst of the forest, Buffy had been sitting in the back of the vehicle watching the trees as they rolled by. It was hard to remember that on such a small and crowded island as Britain there were still areas were the works of man were few and far between; she also remembered the talk she'd been given on survival techniques. The Scottish sergeant who'd been instructing her had warned her that the weather could change and kill her within sight of safety even on a summers day.

So far Buffy had seen no villages or farms, let alone any proper roads and the sky looked full of rain. If she got cold and wet it would slow her down and reduce her chances of getting through this little exercise in sadism. Yes, she was 'The Slayer', the original and best, as she'd grown older her abilities had grown stronger as she'd matured. The old council had never realised that the older a slayer got the better she was...but perhaps they had; which was why they'd never willingly let a slayer live much past her eighteenth birthday. But, even a slayer needed, food, warmth and sleep to function, alright perhaps the slayer needed these things a little less than an 'ordinary' person did, but she still needed them. Hearing Henno open the passenger door, Buffy waited for him to appear, she didn't have to wait long.

“Alright, you,” Henno appeared at the rear of the Land Rover, “out!”

Buffy climbed slowly from the back of the vehicle and stood on the track as she watched the trees, Henno spoke making her look at him and pay attention.

“Right,” Henno began in what Buffy had come to think of as his, 'utter bastard' voice, “the grid reference for your zero-six-hundred RV is five-eight-zero-seven-four-three.”

Frantically Buffy tried to memorise the grid reference, it would be no good asking Henno to repeat it because he wouldn't.

“If you're late for the zero-six-hundred RV,” Henno explained, “you'll get no more food for another twenty-four hours,” Henno smiled maliciously down at her before lifting his arm and looking at his watch, “The Paras start searching for you in one hour...good luck.”

Without saying another word he turned, got back into the Land Rover and drove off down the track leaving Buffy a small forlorn figure in a huge greatcoat standing on a muddy track.

“Bastard!” Buffy muttered angrily, just before she told herself that it was no good cursing the darkness, it was time to light a candle...well, at least a figurative candle because she was pretty sure she'd not got a real one.

Taking her tin of 'survival equipment' from her pocket she opened the box and took out the map and the tiny compass. Crouching down, she spread the map on a dryish piece of ground, taking the compass she lined up north on the map with north on the compass just like she'd been taught, funny, she thought, they'd never taught her to read a map at school.

“Five-eight-zero-seven-four-three,” Buffy found the grid reference on the map, it was another track deep in the woods. “That's here,” she told herself quietly, she looked out across the cleared area of forest to the trees half a mile away, “That's fifteen miles as the crow flies...” she looked again at the surrounding terrain, “...and along the tracks; it'll be more like twenty-five miles if I use the trees for cover.” 

Sighing heavily, Buffy looked at her watch, it was nearly two o'clock or as the army liked to put it 'fourteen-hundred'. Which ever way she decided to go, getting off the tracks was probably a good idea, but she had an hour before the Paras started to look for her. With luck she could use the tracks to cover perhaps half of the distance to the RV. Once the hour was up she'd make her way through the woods until she was close to the RV point. Once in sight of the RV she could hide and maybe get some sleep until Henno turned up with her food and her next RV grid reference.

Looking at her watch again, Buffy found that she'd spent nearly ten minutes working out what to do. Remembering something else she'd been told; that Planning and Preparation, Prevented Piss Poor Performance, she decided that the time taken to plan was probably time well spent. Luckily slayers could run really quickly; setting off down the track, Buffy soon settled into a steady ground eating pace. All that extra training she'd been doing with the trainee slayers would now be paying off; she expected to cover ten miles by the time the paras started to look for her. By then it would be about fifteen-hundred and she'd still have fifteen hours to make it to the RV.

0=0=0=0

After leaving Buffy at her drop off point, Henno drove down the track until he came to a junction and turned to the right before heading for some high ground where he'd meet up with the rest of Red Troop. After only ten minutes driving he caught sight of the other Land Rover belonging to his troop parked up at the side of the track. Bringing his vehicle to halt, Henno climbed out onto the track and went to greet his Troop.

There were the two Sergeants, Maggie McBride and the short, red-haired Scotsman, Pete Twamley, near them were the three Corporals, Jamie Dow, Ricky Mann and Jem Poyton who all stood in a huddle swapping jokes. The three corporals would all be sergeants if they went back to their parent units and Maggie and Pete would be immediately promoted to Staff Sergeant or even Warrant Officer rank. However, their loyalty to The Regiment, plus the belief that they'd rather be out of the army if they weren't in 'The Best', held them in their present ranks.

“Okay people,” Henno called as he approached the group, “our Miss Summers is on her way and we've got...” Henno looked at his watch, “...maybe twenty minutes before we can start looking for her.”

The smug look on Henno's face gave Maggie a clue as to what he'd told Buffy.

“You told her she had an hour before the Paras started to search for her, didn't you?” Maggie asked.

“Too bleedin' right I did,” Henno agreed, “she's a fuckin' slayer and we need every advantage we can get and anyway,” Henno smirked, “I did tell her there was no one out here on her side...”

“You bastard,” Maggie laughed, “that's what you did to me on my selection course isn't it?”

“You're not wrong,” Henno confirmed Maggie's long held suspicions that the instructors had been liberal with the truth on her exercise, “But unlike your instructors, I don't have a tracking device sewn into her uniform.”

“Bastards!” Maggie repeated much to everyone amusement.

“Okay, listen up,” Henno called to get everybody's attention, “Buffy's on the move and I expect she'll be using her slayer speed to move along the tracks before she thinks the Para's are after her.” Henno paused as he got out his map and spread it out on the hood of one of the Rovers. “Now I've got a Para ambush here,” he pointed to the map, “and I expect her to either go through it or around it. If I guess right she'll work out that something's not right and head off through the trees here,” Henno pointed to another area of forest.

“What if she keeps on batterin' doon tha road?” Pete asked.

“In that case I've set up more ambushes here and here,” Henno pointed out two new locations on the map, “but I don't think she'll be that stupid...” he looked up at his team mate, “...remember Buffy Summers has been in almost continual combat since she was what,” Henno glanced at Maggie, “sixteen?”

“More like fifteen,” Maggie replied, her comrades shook their heads at the thought of such a young girl being forced to fight and save the world.

“She's seen more combat time than all of us put together,” Henno pointed out, “she's going to be hard to catch and remember she might look like a blonde, Californian, airhead, but she's actually a natural born, killing machine...” Henno noticed the hurt look on Maggie's face, “...I'm sorry Mags but its true and we need to remember it.”

Henno let this last piece of information sink in for a moment.

“Seeing that Miss Summers is such a formidable foe, I've brought something along to help level the playing field,” as he spoke Henno walked over to his Rover and pulled a couple of long boxes out of the driver's compartment; opening one of the boxes he took out one of the weapons it contained to show it to his troop, “This is the latest thing from the States,” Henno announced as held up the strange weapon.

“That's one of those tasers those wankers from the Initiative used isn't it?” asked Jamie Dow.

“Yes and no,” Henno replied, “this is the latest updated version; it has three times the battery power of the original model, twice the range and an adjustable charge setting.”

“Twice the range?” Pete asked suspiciously.

“I've tried it out and its effective to about fifty metres on full charge but that soaks up a lot of power...I suggest we set them at half power which should give us a range of about twenty-five to thirty metres...”

“Should?” Jem asked, normally he was one of Red Troop's two snipers, to him anything closer than eight-hundred metres was short range.

“Yeah,” Henno nodded, “this is sort of going to be a test. These new weapons aren't as fragile as the old model but they still don't respond well to being dropped in the water, okay?”

“Roger,” everyone replied as they gave each other long suffering looks, they all hated taking experimental equipment out on operations.

“So how are we going to work this?” Maggie wanted to know as she examined the taser Henno had just given her.

“We split into three teams each with a Rover so we can respond to any call for help from the Paras. Maggie you're with me, Pete you go with Jem and Jamie you team up with Ricky.”

“I see you've kept our slayer all t'y'sel?” Pete pointed out.

“Too bloody right I am,” Henno replied straight faced, “if Buffy takes it into her head to come after us, I want our very own slayer to protect me coz she'll be coming after me...I've been a total shit to her these last few days.”

“He's not wrong,” Maggie agreed, she turned to Henno and placed a protective arm around his shoulder, “don't worry Henno,” she patted him on the cheek, “I won't let the nasty slayer hurt you!”

“If I were you,” Ricky Mann smirked, “I think I'd worry more about what Mags might do to you!”

0=0=0=0

Running along the track, Buffy was hardly breathing heavily when she sensed something up ahead, just around the bend in the track. Getting off the track-way, she crouched down in a drainage ditch and listened. Whoever it was, was being very quiet, almost as if they were waiting for her. Realisation suddenly struck home, it was almost as if they were waiting for her to walk into an ambush.

“Ooooh! That bastard Garvie!” Buffy whispered angrily to herself, she glanced at her watch.

Realising that Henno had sent the Paras after her half-an-hour early, Buffy promised to do something unpleasant to the Staff Sergeant when she next met him. However, at the moment she had other things to worry about. Looking into the trees on her side of the track and checking her direction on her compass, Buffy decided to head off into the trees and avoid the ambush. Okay, her journey would take longer, but it was better than fighting her way through the ambush and giving away her position.

0=0=0=0

**A Note on British Army Ranks.**  
In the British Army there are seven ranks between Private and the highest NCO rank of Warrant Officer Class One. In the US Army there are something like fourteen ranks between the highest and lowest 'enlisted ranks'.

In the British army a Corporal would command a section (squad in the US army) or be in command of an armoured fighting vehicle. Sergeants would be second in command of a platoon under a Lieutenant (pronounced 'Lef-tenant' in the British Army). Staff Sergeants can command platoons if no officer is available, but more normally they fill posts such as quartermasters and senior instructors.

British Warrant Officers, unlike those in the US Army, are in the chain of command. A WO2 would be the senior NCO in a company (Company Sergeant Major), while a WO1 would be the senior NCO in a battalion (the feared Regimental Sergeant Major).

British soldiers tend to spend longer 'in grade' (about three years) than seems to be the norm in the US Army. However, the British army has always tended to be a 'long service' force, this is both one of its strengths and its weaknesses.

Although there is a _Royal_ Navy and a _Royal_ Air Force, there is no _Royal_ Army. The army has always been the plain and simple 'English/British Army'. This is because the army was originally formed from units that had fought on the side of Parliament during the Civil War.


	3. Chapter 3

3.

**A forest somewhere in England, night time.**

It was dark, no scrub that, it was very dark. After leaving the track way, Buffy had struck out through the forest where she'd managed to keep up a good pace until the light began to fail. By nine o'clock she'd had to slow right down, not only was the sky overcast, so there was no moon or starlight, the tree canopy was thick enough to block out any light there might have been from the reflection of city lights off the bottom of the clouds.

Then to add to her problems there were odd ditches or possibly old trenches that had been dug at right angles to her line of march. After falling into one of these, luckily it wasn't too deep and she hadn't been hurt, Buffy found she had to really slow down. Glancing at her watch she saw that it was now just after eleven o'clock. Not only had she been slowed down by having to go through the trees, but she'd also had to take a couple of detours to avoid parties of Paras who were out looking for her.

On the plus side Buffy calculated that she was within a mile of her morning RV point. Assuming, of course, that Henno hadn't got the RV point staked out with a bunch of Paras and their annoying tasers. Her plan was to find the RV point and basically bed down for the remainder of the night within sight of it so there'd be no chance of her missing the RV in the morning. Still feeling pretty fresh, Buffy moved on through the forest, by now she was heading down hill towards the track. Moving between two trees, Buffy's 'spider sense' started to warn her of danger close by.

“Darn-it,” Buffy muttered darkly, “Paras!”

Sensing the silver blade slicing through the air towards her neck, Buffy rolled under the blow. The long, sharp, blade 'thunked' into the trunk of a tree as she rolled to her feet and turned to face her adversary. It was so dark that even her enhanced, slayer night vision did her little good. But, she smiled in anticipation as she moved to engage her attacker, if her super-eyes couldn't see much, how much worse would it be for normal eyes?

Her suspicions were confirmed as she moved towards the vague, dark shapes of men and she heard their muttered curses. Coming up behind the man with the sword, Buffy grabbed him around the neck with one arm and by his sword arm with the other. Dragging him away from his comrades she rammed his head into a handy tree trunk and felt him go lip in her arms. Letting her victim fall to the ground she moved in once again on the other members of the ambush team. 

Not bothering to try to make things out with her eyes, Buffy concentrated on hearing what was going on. These guys were blundering about getting in each other's way instead of staying still and trying to listen for her. Henno had told her that the Paras were good, but this mob sounded like rank amateurs. Smiling to herself in the darkness, Buffy moved in and grabbed another victim. The man gave a startled scream and struggled in her arms as she dragged him away into the night. He stopped struggling the instant she knocked on wood using his head.

By now the surviving members of the ambush team were scared, very scared. Buffy thought that to them it must be like being in one of those horror movies where the monster comes out of the night and drags someone away. Well, if it worked for the monster it'd work even better for the slayer. There were now two, possible three ambushers left. Two of the men were babbling incoherently about 'she-demons' or something. But, there was also what could be a third voice, it was hard to hear because unlike the other two its owner wasn't panicking.

Moving in to the attack once more, Buffy came up behind one of her would be assailants and tapped him on the shoulder. Screaming in fear the man turned raising a dagger to stab at his unseen foe. Punching the man in his solar plexus, Buffy brought up her knee to hit him in the face as he doubled over in pain. Feeling her knee make contact with his face and hearing the slight cracking noise as his nose broke, she hit the man on the back of the head knocking him out cold.

Hearing a footfall behind her Buffy turned on her left leg while striking out with her right. Her booted foot made contact with a man's arm and she heard him cry out in alarm. The sound of the man's footsteps as he stumbled about came clearly to Buffy's ears allowing her to kick out again, this time with her left foot and making contact with her attacker's crotch. Hearing him groan as he fell to his knees, she stepped up to the man and hit him on the side of his head sending his brain bouncing around inside his skull and rendering him unconscious and possibly brain damaged.

Hearing more footsteps, Buffy turned bringing her arms and fists up ready to fight. However, she relaxed when she realised that the last man was running off blindly through the trees. Sniggering, she heard whoever it was run full speed into a tree and fall to the ground. Dismissing this last target from her mind, Buffy concentrated on the men lying at her feet. They all seemed to be still breathing so she decided to leave them where they were. Crouching down she searched until she found something cold and hard. Picking up the dagger she turned it over in her hands. It felt sort of 'ornate', and not really the sort of weapon you'd expect a soldier to carry. Shrugging to herself, she put it in the pocket of her greatcoat, she'd talk to Henno about people coming after her with swords and knives in the morning; tasers were one thing, sharp pointy things were quite another.

Turning so she was facing down slope again, Buffy realised that she'd got a little turned around during the fight and she wasn't one-hundred percent sure if she was on her original course or not. Whatever, she told herself, as long as she headed down slope in five or ten minutes she'd hit the track and she'd be able to hide up and get some rest.

0=0=0=0

**A caravan in the forest, close by.**

The small size of the caravan wasn't really built to accommodate effective pacing, so Ahme stopped in mid-pace. As she came to a halt her eyes fell on the small statue of the Goddess Kaili on the shelf at the far end of the caravan. The large, original version of the statue had been lost when Clang had had it moved to the coast for the sacrifice of the Great-She-Demon's sister. That was Clang in a nutshell, Ahme told herself, an unwillingness to move with the times.

The twelve foot high statue of the goddess hadn't been needed for the ceremony, but Clang had had to move it all the same and it was taken when the authorities had come to clear up the mess left by the Great-She-Demon and her Lesser-Demons. They'd also lost the sacrificial stone when the Great-She-Demon and her Lesser-Demons had raided the temple of The Followers in Middlesbrough. No doubt she'd been led there by her pet, the red-haired, priestess. Eventually Ahme would exact her revenge on all the Lesser-Demons, the Minor-Demons and their pets.

Not that Ahme really believed that this Buffy Summers and the other women were demons, she just didn't know what else to call them. Obviously the red-haired priestess was some kind of powerful witch, but the others, she didn't know. There was nothing in the goddesses' religious books that described Buffy Summers and her minions, but it was obvious that these women were different, so Ahme had started to call them Demons. It was also a simple concept for the Congregation to fix in their minds. Their foes were demons and the Goddess was the 'killer of demons', so by tracking down and killing Buffy Summers they were doing the Goddesses' will. So far no one had thought to suggest that if the Goddess was the 'killer of Demons' why wasn't she down on Earth doing her job?

A frantic knocking on the door of the caravan jerked Ahme out of these musings on why the Goddess wasn't living up to one of her many names. Gesturing to one of her handmaidens, who'd been standing quietly in the corner of the caravan, Ahme indicated that the girl should open the door. Hurrying to obey the High Priestess, the girl opened the door to admit Intermediate Priest Bhuta.

“Bhuta!?” Ahme looked down her elegant nose at the little man.

“I bring news, oh great High Priestess,” Bhuta replied breathlessly as he stepped into the now over crowded caravan.

“Good!” Ahme smiled, “You have come to report the killing of the Great-She-Demon, Buffy Summers?”

“Not so much, oh great High Priestess,” Bhuta admitted.

“Alright,” Ahme sighed heavily, “what went wrong?”

In line with her policy of not killing the messenger, Ahme refrained from telling one of her handmaidens to slit Bhuta's throat, after all good messengers were hard to find.

“One of our hunter teams, finding themselves lost in the dark of the forest,” Bhuta began, “decided to wait for daylight before continuing the hunt for the Great-She-Demon.” Bhuta paused to gauge the mood of his audience, when Ahme didn't immediately order his death he continued. “No sooner had they made camp than a terrible creature came on them out of the dark...”

“The Great-She-Demon?” Ahme asked.

“So it is believed, oh lightness of our lives,” Bhuta grovelled, “although out men fought valiantly, the Great-She-Demon defeated them...only Brother Robert managed to escape the wrath of the Gre...”

“Yes, yes, blah, blah,” Ahme stamped her foot in disappointment and anger, “I can imagine what happened...” she paused before asking, “...Brother Robert?”

“One of the new converts, light of the heavens,” Bhuta explained.

“Whatever,” Ahme's mind was racing with plans now, “have all the hunter teams move towards the place where this fight happened as soon as it is light.” Ahme turned and picked up a notebook and flipped through its pages until she came to the information she wanted. “If what Brother Aziz found out is right I suspect that the Demon is near her first RV point. After she has made contact with her SAS lackeys our men can move in and destroy her!”

“I love and obey you most high one,” Bhuta bowed low before the high priestess, “but...”

“But?” Ahme prepared herself for more bad news, perhaps she would have Bhuta sacrificed after all.

“Mobile phone coverage is sketchy to say the least oh great...great...” Bhuta panicked when he ran out of superlatives to describe the High Priestess.

“Oh, get on with it,” Ahme sighed tiredly.

“Well,” Bhuta continued meekly, “we might not be able to contact everyone.”

“Well, send messengers, do the best you can...” Ahme shook her head slowly, she really needed some new staff, Bhuta was a legacy from Clang's administration and he'd not exactly shone brightly even then. “Unless you have something else to tell me,” she pointed at the door, “GO!”

“At once your...your...” Bhuta stepped back, forgot he was standing on the edge of the step and stumbled, falling over backwards and into the night.

Stepping forward one of the handmaidens closed and locked the door.

“Thank the Goddess he's gone,” Ahme sighed with relief, “now,” she looked at her handmaidens and smiled, she liked these girls they loved and obeyed her in complete silence. “Now you may undress me then you can join me in bed and pleasure my body.”

Quickly, but more importantly, silently the girls moved to remove Ahme's sari.

0=0=0=0

**Grid reference, 580743, dawn.**

Hearing the Land Rover drive along the track and come to a halt, Buffy poked her head from out of the nest she'd made for herself and yawned. Glancing at her watch she saw it was ten minutes before six and time for the first RV. The Land Rover was parked on the side of the track about fifty yards away and facing away from her, she'd be able to sneak up on it and Henno wouldn't spot her until it was too late. It wasn't so much that she didn't trust him personally, it was more to do with the fact that she didn't trust anyone right now.

Moving quietly as only a slayer could, Buffy got herself free of the piles of bracken she'd used for bedding. The little hollow where she'd made her bed had been surprisingly comfortable and she'd got a good five hours sleep; she now felt rested and ready to face whatever the SAS could through at her. Moving stealthily along the ditch towards the Land Rover, Buffy arrived at Henno's window with two minutes to spare.

“Hi!” Buffy called brightly hoping to make the SAS man jump with her sudden appearance.

Either Henno had seen her coming or had ice water for blood. it was also possible that he was very good at covering his surprise as he didn't show any reaction to Buffy's sudden appearance.

“Food?” Buffy asked.

Shrugging Henno picked up a candy bar and something wrapped in silver paper. Ripping open the sliver bundle, Buffy found an egg, bacon and sausage roll, she bit into it hungrily and sighed with contentment; it was still hot.

“All right, your RV for zero-six-hundred tomorrow...” Henno informed Buffy, “...is five-eight-two-seven-three-nine,” he reached for the Rover's starter.

“Hey!” Buffy said through a mouthful of egg, bacon, sausage and bread, “Wait up...”

“What?” Henno turned to her with a bored expression on his face.

“Look,” Buffy pulled the knife from her pocket; in the daylight she could see that it did indeed have an ornate hilt attached to a wide curved blade, it looked a little like the type of knife used by the First's henchmen, The Bringers, “Like, you've told your Para guys that we're not playing for keeps right?”

“Where'd you get this,” Henno asked taking the knife from Buffy's hand and examining it.

“This is what I'm trying to tell you,” Buffy explained, “last night about midnight I was attacked by five or six guys all armed with knives and swords.”

“Odd,” Henno frowned, this didn't sound like the Para's, “okay leave it with me I'll have a word with the Paras about bringing sharp objects into the game.”

Before Buffy could add anything more, Henno had started the motor and had driven off, leaving her standing alone on the track once more. Finishing her breakfast, she stuffed the candy, a Lion Bar it said on the wrapper, into her pocket. Next she got out her map and compass, crouching down at the side of the track she located her present position before finding the grid reference for her next RV.

“Right I'm here,” Buffy told herself as she looked at the map, “and the RV is...here...crap!” the RV was on the opposite side of a river from where she now stood.

The RV point itself was about twenty miles away, which wasn't so bad. However most of the route was through the forest so she could count on adding at least another five or ten miles to that distance. Plus there were the Paras to avoid, no doubt they'd be out in force looking for her after she'd beaten up one of their patrol last night.

“Like, there's no time like the present,” Buffy told herself, but starting off would have to wait, she needed to deal with something.

Looking around she saw a good sized bush that would give her enough cover, she really needed to pee!

0=0=0=0

Coming out from behind the tree he'd been using as cover, Gasim saw the Great-She-Demon stand up behind the bush she'd been squatting behind. Ducking back into cover his fingers searched frantically for his mobile phone. Searching through its memory he found Intermediate Priest Bhuta's number and pressed the dial button. His heart leapt for joy when he got through.

“Honoured Bhuta,” Gasim spoke quickly into his phone, “I have spotted the Great-She-Demon, she is near the first RV point and is heading north, what should I do?”

Listening to his instructions, Gasim nodded his head before signing off. Moving out onto the track he waved for the other brothers in his hunter team to come out of hiding. The other men joined Gasim on the track before heading up the hill after the Great-She-Demon. The Demon might move quickly, Gasim told himself, but it was not their job to catch up with her, they were just to make sure she didn't double back and avoid the men waiting at the river.

0=0=0=0

“Bravo-zero-one to all bravo call signs,” Henno spoke into his radio, “meet me at grid 580749, I think we might have a situation.”

Listening for the confirmations from the rest of his troop, Henno slowed down and stopped to let Maggie climb into the Rover beside him, she saw the concerned look on his face.

“What's up, Henno?” Maggie asked as she got herself comfortable.

“I think there might be someone else out here after our Miss Summers,” Henno passed Maggie the knife Buffy had given him, “seen anything like this before?”

“It's not a military weapon, that's for sure,” Maggie turned the knife over in her hands, “too many jewels for one thing.”

“Then its not anything you recognise?” he asked as he drove off again.

“No,” Maggie shook her head, “it might be an idea to call up the Slayer Organisation and see if its something they might recognise.”

“I'd rather not, Mags,” Henno shook his head, “I'd rather deal with this, if there's anything that needs dealing with.”

“Why?” Maggie wanted to know.

“If we want more slayers coming out and training with us we've got to prove that they'll be safe with us and me can protect them.”

“If you say so,” Maggie didn't sound one-hundred percent convinced.

“When we meet up with the rest of the guys,” Henno continued, “I'm sending Pete back to camp to draw some pistols and live rounds.”

“So, you do think its something?” Maggie asked.

“Better safe than having to explain how Buffy got hacked to pieces to all her friends and family,” Henno pointed out, “I'm guessing they wouldn't be too pleased.”

0=0=0=0


	4. Chapter 4

4.

**The River.**

With her coat billowing out behind her like some big, khaki cloak, Buffy set a good pace as she ran up the slope. It wasn't even seven o'clock yet but she had a river and twenty miles of rough terrain to cross before she got to eat again. There were also the Paras to try and avoid; the previous day she'd managed to evade the Para patrols through a mixture of superior senses and blind luck. Today she felt it could well be different, from what Henno had told her, these Parachute guys were tough and not prone to giving up easily. They'd no doubt be putting extra effort into finding and catching her today.

Climbing steadily, Buffy neared the crest of the valley. From her map she'd seen that the area in front of her was cut by a succession of shallow valleys. To make matters worse they were at a ninety degree angle to her line of march, she wouldn't be able to just follow one until she came to the river, that would take her miles out of her way. Reaching the crest line, she started down into the next valley. Here she found the undergrowth between the trees a lot thicker than she'd expected. Up until now the trees had been widely spaced with little in the way of undergrowth to get in her way. In this valley the woods took on more of the look of a jungle.

Having to find her way through all the bushes and briar patches was starting to slow her down and it was beginning to sap her strength, not seriously but she could feel her fatigue levels start to rise. Okay, she was the slayer, but she'd had one bacon, egg and sausage roll to eat in the last twenty-four hours, even a slayer needed fuel to keep going. At the moment she was still reasonably fresh and she'd intended to make as much distance as she could before she started to feel tired. But all these bushes and brambles were slowing her down, Buffy thought that if she could make up some time she might be able to spend a little time foraging and perhaps find something else to eat.

By the time Buffy stumbled out onto the track, she'd decided that she needed to rethink her plan. Listening for a moment or two as she stood on the forest path; she was alone and could safely spend a little time looking at her map. Taking out her map and compass she laid them on the pathway and studied them for a moment or two. The map was a copy of the usual Ordinance Survey maps that you could buy in any good book shop, only this one was printed on cloth. They were very detailed and updated every five years or so, she was confident that the map at least wouldn't make her go off in the wrong direction, her map reading skills, however, she didn't feel so confident about.

So far she hadn't taken a wrong turn but the day was still young, so anything might happen. Looking at the map she saw that it was more of the same all of the way to the river, it would take her half her available time to get to the river which wasn't even a third of the way to the RV, there had to be a better route. Studying the map closely she found the track she was on (at least she hoped it was the same track) although it paralleled the line of the river for a couple of miles, the river turned and she saw that the track led right towards it. Yes it would take her out of her way, but going in as straight a line as possible didn't appear to be an option. Calculating that by following the track she'd end up less exhausted than by trying to fight her way through the undergrowth, Buffy folded up her map and put it and her compass back into the inside pocket of her coat where it'd be safe. Checking the time on her watch she started to run along the track.

0=0=0=0

“Team Leader, Majid,” Majid said into his mobile phone as he and his men watched Buffy start off down the track, “the Great-She-Demon is heading east along a track towards the river,” he consulted his own map, a larger paper version of the map Buffy was using, “if the demon stays on the track she will appear at the river near Otterthwaite.”

Waiting for a reply, Majid nodded as he was given his instructions before closing up his phone and putting it safely back into his pocket. Signalling to the seven other men in his team they got up to follow the demon Buffy Summers. If it hadn't been for the thick underbrush they would have lost her some time ago. But the thickly growing vegetation had slowed her significantly so they'd been able to keep up with her by following the path she'd made.

Now she was on the track she'd be moving too quickly for them to keep up with. Hopefully, they wouldn't need to, right at that moment teams would be moving towards Otterthwaite and would take up positions along the river to wait for the demon to make her appearance. When she did, they would fall on her and kill her.

0=0=0=0

Not seeing the tripwire until it was too late, Buffy still tried to take evasive action, it didn't help because there was more than one tripwire. Having followed the path for ten or fifteen minutes Buffy had spent the time she was running calculating how much time she was using up compared to the distance to the RV point. Confident that she'd get to the RV in plenty of time and be able to rest and perhaps do some foraging she'd let her mind wander so she hadn't noticed the fine wire stretched across the path.

When her foot came down on the tripwire, there was a sharp, 'click' as something was activated by the wire being moved. The click was followed by a bright flash followed by an incredibly loud 'BANG!'. Even as she stumbled, momentarily blinded and deafened, Buffy recognised the effects of a stun grenade. Henno had demonstrated them to her during her two weeks familiarisation, she'd actually been in a room when one of them had gone off. Even for a slayer they were very disorienting, however, Henno had mentioned that she did appear to recover from the grenade's effects faster than was considered normal.

Trying to fight off the effects of the blast, Buffy was unaware of the soldiers springing from their hiding places until they were almost on her. Blinking her eyes free of tears and trying to ignore the loud ringing in her ears, Buffy was just in time to see a camouflaged shape loom up in front of her. Lashing out with her fist she hit the man in the chest knocking him off his feet. Before she'd had time to congratulate herself on her rapid recovery someone else rugby tackled her from behind and knocked her to the ground. Almost before she'd registered this new state of affairs she felt the weight of several other men pile on top of her.

Someone was yelling for someone else to get the cuffs on her, while yet a third voice was saying that they couldn't hold her much longer. Lying on her back under three or four men, Buffy struggled to fight her way free. With a great shout she managed to push the men off her and scramble to her feet. Looking around herself she saw four paratroopers lying or sitting on the ground all looking up at her with worried expressions on their faces. Just as Buffy was about to move and beat the b'jesus out of her attackers, she became aware of a fifth man who was standing behind her. Turning inhumanly fast she saw the fifth paratrooper pointing a taser at her.

He was too far away to let her cross the distance to him and disarm him before he could fire and stun her. However she wasn't so far away as not to be able to see his finger tighten on the weapon's trigger. Ducking under the little metal hocks as they flew towards her dragging the wires that carried the electrical charge behind them. Buffy rolled across the pathway and jumped to her feet right in front of the para.

“Bugger,” he said resignedly as Buffy punched him in the gut hard enough to make him throw up, but not hard enough to do any serious harm.

The soldier's were saved from further injury when Buffy heard the sound of a helicopter flying over the trees. Glancing up she caught a glimpse of the chopper through the branches of the trees; it looked as if it was circling her location. Cursing bitterly to herself, Buffy plunged into the undergrowth at the side of the track and headed off through the woods, she had to lose the chopper and lose it fast before more men could be sent to cut her off.

0=0=0=0

“Fuck-it!” Maggie swore as she lowered the thermal imager from her eyes and rested it on her lap, “I thought the para's had got her there for a minute.”

“Not to worry,” Henno called as the helicopter continued to circle the ambush sight, “she's still got to cross the river, we'll pick her up once she's cold and knackered from swimming the river.”

“You going to bring this to an end?” Maggie asked as she watched the treetops below her, without the thermal imager the trees prevented her from seeing anything but more trees.

“We might as well,” Henno shrugged, “she's proved she can evade, there's no reason to keep on with this part of the exercise, we've also shown that we can still outsmart her. That ambush the paras set up almost worked, if it'd been us with our new taser guns we'd have her by now.”

“True,” Maggie nodded, it had been Henno and his predecessors that had caught her and they'd only had the old style tasers; lifting the thermal imager to her eyes again Maggie swept the woods below. “Hold on,” Maggie called, “there's something odd going on down there.”

“What's up?” Henno asked as he looked out the side door of the chopper, of course without the thermal imager he could see nothing but trees.

“Seven, maybe eight men running through the woods about two hundred metres behind Buffy's position,” Maggie reported.

“Para's?” Henno started to check the symbols on his map, according to his map there weren't any paratroopers anywhere near where these new guys would be.

Talking to the helicopter's pilot, he had the aircraft circle the area were the unidentified runners where.

“Not Paras,” Maggie reported once the helicopter was circling over the men's position, “they've stopped and are trying to take cover from us.”

Maggie could clearly see the blobs of colour that denoted the men on the ground as they took cover behind trees and under bushes.

“Perhaps they're Buffy's mysterious men with swords?” Henno suggested.

“Could be Henno,” Maggie replied once more lowering the big imager onto her legs, “look its not out of the realms of possibility that one or more of Buffy's enemies have worked out what's going on and are out to kill or capture her.”

After Buffy had reported being attacked by men with swords the previous night, Henno had checked that the paras weren't getting overenthusiastic. Not only did the Para company commander deny that any of his men were using swords or knives, he also explained that none of his men had been in the area when Buffy was attacked. Shortly after this discussion, Henno had all his team mates issued with pistols and live ammunition. 

“Okay that's it, I'm calling off this part of the exercise,” Henno told Maggie, “pity it was going so well too.”

“What now?” Maggie wanted to know as she watched the men hiding below her.

“First we'll call in more men and sweep the woods for any more of these fuckers,” something was telling Henno that there were more than just eight 'X-rays' involved. “I'll have the Paras round up these arseholes while we take down Miss Summers.”

“You're still going to let her cross the river?” Maggie wanted to know.

“Of course,” Henno grinned malevolently, “I want her as exhausted as possible by the time we get her back to the Lubyanka.”

'The Lubyanka' was the SAS's very own Psychological Warfare building or interrogation centre where they taught their personnel how to resist interrogation.

“You're an evil bastard, Henno,” Maggie turned to look at her team leader, “a right, evil, nasty bastard.”

“I try,” Henno shrugged before starting to talk into his radio as he began to shift the paras around like pieces on a chessboard.

0=0=0=0

Having lost the helicopter and thinking that it had been too easy, Buffy had made her way through the woods. After going through another mile or so of thick undergrowth she found the forest opened out again. Thinking back she now realised that following the track had been a mistake; she should have realised the Paras would be covering it. They'd almost got her too. If they'd got the handcuffs on her or if they'd managed to taser her, she'd be enjoying Henno's, no doubt, mocking company right about now.

The woods had opened out to a point where they didn't give any real overhead cover. However, the chopper had gone, although she could still hear it but it must be miles away by now. Now she was close to the river and she was going to have to break cover and make her way across the fields to get to the riverbank. It was over five hours since she'd started out that morning, while she wasn't exhausted she did feel tired and hungry, but she could live with it, after all she still had eighteen hours to get to the RV point. A worrying thought came to her; twenty-four hours to cover twenty miles did on the face of it seem rather generous. In all probability Henno had something planned to slow her down; but she'd cross that bridge when she came to it...now talking of bridges.

Crouching in the rather sparse tree line Buffy studied the fields between herself and the river; she'd have to cross about two hundred metres of open ground before she came to the riverbank. On the plus side the bank did look pretty overgrown and would supply her with cover so she could pick her crossing point. On the minus side all the small trees and bushes prevented her from getting a good look at the river; one thing was for sure, the river would be cold and wet.

Watching and waiting for a full ten minutes, Buffy eventually decided that there was no time like the present. Waiting would only mean giving Henno more time to move even more troops in to cover the river. Keeping as low as she could and doing her best to look as little like a Buffy Summers as she could, Buffy started to run across the fields towards the river. Luckily the grass was short and there were no annoying barbed wire fences to slow her down. Onwards she ran even risking raising her head in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the river.

“Darn-it!” Buffy muttered; yes she'd seen the river and yes it looked cold and wet, but on the other hand it was definitely not as wide as the Mississippi.

But like the Mississippi it looked very full and fast flowing from all the rain that had been falling over the last week or so. There also appeared to have bits of tree floating by, just the sort of thing that could cave in a slayer's ribs if she wasn't careful.

It wasn't until Buffy had covered half the distance towards the river that she heard the shouting coming from behind her. Thinking it was the paras on her tail again she quickly glanced over her shoulder to see how far away they were. What she saw nearly made her stop running. Instead of the maroon beret wearing Paratroopers, she saw a whole gang of men in mismatched pieces of military and civilian clothing. The two things they all had in common, however, was that they were all waving something sharp and pointy and they were all coming after her!

“...KAILI!” the call came faintly across the fields as the men got closer.

“Hey!” Buffy cried as she started to run faster; wasn't that what the assholes who'd tried to kill Dawn had yelled and now they were coming after her; what had she done to piss them off?

Feeling a little annoyed at the universe, Buffy reminded herself that she'd shot quite a few of them while Faith, Willow, Giles, Kennedy and herself had been rescuing Dawn, but that was business this looked personal. The next sound that came to Buffy's ears was that of the chopper as it swept low along the line of the river. Turning towards the men with swords it hovered a few yards in front of the sword armed men bringing them to an untidy halt.

Slowing down, Buffy took a moment to take a look at what was going on behind her. The helicopter hovered in front of her perusers preventing them from coming after her. Over to her right she saw a couple of army trucks come to a halt and disgorge a load of Paratroopers. The Paras started to run across the field not towards her but towards the men with swords. Buffy couldn't work out what was going on; this could all be something that wasn't in the play-book or; it could all be some fiendish plan by Henno to get her to give up thinking there was something weird going on.

0=0=0=0

Watching from a pub car park, Ahme saw her plans fall apart as the soldiers rounded up her followers and led them away towards the army trucks. Soon, no doubt, the police would turn up and ask embarrassing questions about why they were chasing young women across the countryside armed with swords. Of course most of her followers would be let out on bail, but by then it would be too late, Buffy Summers would have gone and would be safely surrounded by her family and friends.

Turning away from the scene of the Demon's latest victory, Ahme walked quickly to her car, getting into the back of the vehicle she told Bhuta to take herself and her handmaidens back to Bradford, all was lost; but there was one shred of light in the darkness of despair. The car was towing the caravan so they'd be able to drive at fifty mile-per-hour in the middle of the road preventing anyone from overtaking them on these narrow country roads.

0=0=0=0

Deciding that this was probably all a trick, Buffy sprinted for the river. The trees on the riverbank loomed up in front of her as did the half dozen men with swords who rose up, seemingly from the ground itself and charged at her.

“KAILI!” yelled the men as they waved their swords and ran towards her.

By now Buffy was really annoyed and as soon as she got into punching distance she did! Dodging the long curved blades of her assailant's swords, Buffy took the men down with a few economically placed punches and kicks. Standing over the men as they groaned and nursed broken bones, she was just in time to see another bunch of sword wielding fanatics charging towards her from further down steam. For a moment she considered taking these guys down too, but then it occurred to her that if this was one of Henno's tricks and that was precisely what he'd expect her to do.

Running the last few yards to the river bank, Buffy paused for just a moment as she saw the river clearly for the first time, it looked bad. Turning she saw the men with swords only a few yards behind her. Coming to a decision she dumped her greatcoat, it would surely drag her under if she tried to wear it while swimming. Taking one last look over her shoulder, Buffy jumped and splashed into the river.

The cold almost took her breath away as she disappeared under the water. Pushing herself up off the river bed, she broke surface and gasped as she tried to steady her breathing, there was no point breathing in if her lungs were already full of air. Catching a final glimpse of the swordsmen standing ineffectually on the riverbank, Buffy struck out for the opposite bank. Not only was the river freezing cold it was also extremely fast flowing. Trying not to fight against the river she let it take her down stream as she used her strength to reach out for the opposite bank.

By the time she was able to reach out and grab a branch of one of the trees that grew on the far back, Buffy calculated that she was about three hundred metres down stream from where she'd jumped to avoid her pursuers. Cold and exhausted she pulled herself into the bank. Pausing to catch her breath, she climbed out of the river her soaking uniform weighing a ton and almost dragging her back into the water.

“Gotta move,” Buffy told herself, if she didn't move and get her blood flowing around her body hypothermia could set in then she'd be in real trouble.

Dragging herself up the side of the river bank, Buffy froze as she heard a twig snap. Looking up she saw one of the younger SAS guys standing over her, close but not close enough for her to grab. He raised the weapon that Buffy vaguely recognised as an Initiative taser and pointed it at her.

“Für Sie, Frauline Summers,” the soldier announced in excellent German, “der Krieg ist vorbei.”

Lifting his weapon to his shoulder the soldier fired and Buffy's world faded to black.

0=0=0=0


	5. Chapter 5

5.

**'The Lubyanka', Stirling Barracks, Hereford.**

Waking up, Buffy found that someone had put a sack over her head and handcuffed her hands behind her back. The noise of a truck engine and the way that the floor swayed under her told her that she was in the back of a truck being taken somewhere, undoubtedly, even more unpleasant. Deciding it was time to leave, she started to exert pressure on the handcuffs. It wasn't easy to do, particularly if her hands were behind her back but she'd broken handcuffs before. Straining against the cuffs she found that they wouldn't budge. Frowning to herself she relaxed before trying again; once more the cuffs failed to come apart.

Deciding to try again later, Buffy waited for the truck to stop. Lying on her stomach in the back of the truck, she did a quick inventory of all her outlying bits and pieces. Her uniform was still soaking wet so she couldn't have been out of the river for very long; she was cold, hungry and felt strangely weak. Telling herself that this was probably due to her not having had much to eat in the last day or two, she wasn't particularly worried. As soon as the truck came to a halt she'd break free and escape.

After going around what felt like a sharp left hand bend the truck slowed down and came to a halt. Almost immediately there were voices yelling at her to 'stand up' and 'move'. Feeling herself being dragged to her feet, Buffy tensed ready to break the handcuffs prior to handing out a little retribution and making her escape. Once more she tried to break the cuffs as she was pushed along the inside of the truck and once more the cuffs didn't break, perhaps they were made of some super-strong metal?

Someone gave her an extra hard push in the small of her back and Buffy suddenly found herself stepping out into thin air. With a startled cry she felt herself falling, hardly had she registered the fact that she'd been pushed out of the back of the truck than she came to a sudden, painful halt as she hit the hard surface of the road. Once again there was a lot of yelling, kicking and punching as violent hands dragged her to her feet and pushed her across the concrete surface of the road. After only a few more paces the sounds changed around her and she guessed that she was now inside a building. The floor under her feet felt smoother and there was more of an echo whenever someone shouted at her.

As she was dragged down a corridor, Buffy tried to push back when someone pushed her face first into a wall and held her there. To her horror she found that it was like pushing against a mountain. Whoever it was holding her had no difficulty restraining her and the terrible realisation struck home, someone had drugged her just like Giles once had, she was now no stronger than any other twenty-five year old woman.

The sound of a door being unlocked came to Buffy's ears moments before she was dragged into what felt like a much smaller area where she was forced to sit down on a hard wooden chair. Hearing the door being closed behind whoever had brought her in here, Buffy sat on her chair and waited for the interrogation part of the exercise to begin. It didn't take a genius to work out what was going on here. Henno and his minions had captured her and injected her with something that had stolen her super-powers, next would come the questioning. No doubt there'd be a lot of yelling and pushing and probably some violence and pain, but what could they really do to her? They weren't going to kill her, all she had to do was to hang on for a few hours and then she'd be fine.

The sound of the door opening, made Buffy jump, she realised that she must have dozed off while she was waiting for someone to come and talk to her or start questioning her. What they were going to question her about she didn't know, it wasn't like she knew any state secrets or anything like that. Hearing someone walk across the room and pull out a chair on the other side of the room from her, Buffy wondered what was the best way of resisting interrogation. As she couldn't break free and break out, saying nothing seemed like the safest way of getting through the next few hours. If you said nothing they couldn't twist your words or gain any information from what you did or didn't say. One of the SAS soldiers she'd worked with had told her he'd been captured by the Provisional IRA and tortured. He said he'd tried to focus on one spot on the wall and let his mind drift, a simple form of self hypnosis. When she'd asked if had worked he'd sort of shrugged and said 'a little'.

The sack was suddenly pulled from her head and Buffy found she was sitting in a small dark room inadequately illuminated by one weak electric light. On the other side of the rough wooden table in front of her, Buffy saw Henno Garvie sitting watching her unemotionally. He was still dressed very much as he had been the last time she'd seen him, jeans, camouflaged jacket and a sardonic grin on his face. Slowly Henno reached up to one of the breast pockets of his jacket and pulled out a note book and laid it on the table in front of him.

“This,” Henno spoke for the first time, “as you have probably guessed, is the interrogation part of the exercise.” he paused to let this sink into Buffy's tired mind, “As you're a civilian I have to remind you that you don't _have_ to go through with this, you can quit now if you want,” Henno smiled, Buffy thought almost warmly, “Just say the word and you can have a hot shower, something to eat and drink...sleep...just think about it, Buffy, nice, crisp, clean sheets, a soft bed no one to push you around, all you have to do is say and it can all be yours...”

Suddenly Buffy knew what evil looked and sounded like, the First Evil wasn't some incorporeal monster who wanted to destroy the world. No, the First Evil was a British Army Staff Sergeant who wanted her to give up.

“...but of course you'll have to live with yourself afterwards,” Henno continued in a conversational tone of voice, “worse you'll have to live with the fact that you failed where others had succeeded, I mean...” Henno thumbed through his notebook until he found the page he wanted, “...I bet this, Faith Lehane woman would pass, she sounds like a real hard case, spent time in prison...” Henno smiled, “...not a soft, easy prison like HMP Slade, no a real tough American jail,” Henno turned another page and chuckled, “Oh, and there's this Kennedy Scapone girl, she'd see it through to the bitter end just to spite you, do you think you could stand being beaten by the spoilt, rich girl, eh?”

Buffy just sat there and remained silent, even though her mind was yelling at her to tell this Brit jerk that she could take anything he or anyone else could hand out, no way was she going to be beaten by Kennedy.

“Okay,” Henno said as he slowly got to his feet, “I'll take your silence as acceptance of what's going to happen over the next thirty-six hours.”

Thirty-six hours? Buffy almost panicked as she watched Henno leave the room, thirty-six hours what the hell was going to happen to her in the next thirty-six hours? Telling herself to calm down, Buffy reminded herself that they couldn't do anything really _bad_ to her and thirty-six hours was only a day and a half; she could hold out for a day and a half.

Scarcely had these thoughts gone through her mind than the door banged open again and in came three of the biggest Paratroopers she'd ever seen. They grabbed her by the arms and pulled her to her feet before dragging her out of the room and down a long, dark, corridor. The Paras were so tall and she was so short that her feet were a good six inches off the floor as they carried her off to another room. This time she was pushed into a larger room, one of the soldiers uncuffed her hands before standing back and telling her to strip.

The three soldiers stood with their backs against the wall, their arms folded across their chests and big grins on their faces. Forgetting for a moment that she seemed to have misplaced her slayer powers, Buffy made a break for the still open door. Of course she didn't get far and the soldiers easily caught her before they started to pull her wet uniform from her body. Very quickly she found herself shivering and naked under the gaze of the lewd and licentious soldiery.

Not being given time to really appreciate her situation, the soldiers grabbed her again, put the sack back over her head and dragged her out of the room and into the corridor. For the first time since she'd been on the exercise, Buffy felt scared. Was she really one-hundred percent sure that they weren't going to hurt her? It would be so easy for these three jokers to take her somewhere quiet and rape her; she was normal now, there'd be little she could do to stop them.

A hard push in the small of Buffy's back made her stumble forward, she felt gravel under her feet and she guessed she was in another room, but why had it got gravel on the floor? The little stones hurt the soles of her feet as she was pushed across the room. Being made to stand with her legs apart and her arms stretched out in front of her so she had to hold most of her body weight on her hands, Buffy had a bucket of ice cold water emptied over her head soaking the sack and making it difficult for her to breath. Next the room was filled with loud 'white noise' that beat on her ears like hammers making it hard to think. Hearing the door close Buffy felt herself being left in the room.

The muscles in her arms and the backs of her legs soon started to hurt and the white noise was beginning to give her a headache. The gravel cut into her feet painfully and she began to wonder why she hadn't taken Henno up on his offer of food, a shower and a soft bed. Moving to ease the pain in her arms and legs, she heard the cell door bang open behind her as at least two men entered the room. Crying out in pain as someone hit her in the kidneys with what felt like a baton, Buffy groaned and slumped against the wall of the cell. Again she was struck with the baton before someone else put her back into the stress position, obviously they didn't want her to move.

0=0=0=0

By the time the white noise was switched off, Buffy's world had been reduced to a very small place containing only pain and noise. The sudden silence made her gasp and she almost welcomed the rough hands that grabbed her and dragged her out of the cell and along the corridor. After what felt like an interminable walk on her sore feet, she heard another door open and found herself being pushed into yet another room. Told to stand still and wait, she was left in the cold with the wet sack still over her head. Time seemed to stand still as she stood there shivering and waiting for the next piece of studied sadism that Henno and his friend's sick minds had thought up to begin.

After what felt like an eternity, Buffy almost sighed with relief when she heard the door open and close as someone else came into the room. The sack was pulled roughly from her head and Buffy stood blinking in the harsh light of the room and found herself confronted my a dark haired woman in a black roll neck jersey and camouflaged trousers. Her dark almost black hair was tied back in a severe bun on the back of her head. Buffy guessed that the woman would look pretty attractive in civilian clothes, but her cold, hard eyes seemed to show no pity for Buffy Anne Summers. The woman sat down behind the desk in front of Buffy, placing a folder on the desk she opened it, and appeared to read one of the many loose pages held between the folder's covers. Not saying anything for some time, Buffy nearly jumped out of her skin when the woman spoke for the first time; Buffy realised she must have dozed off again while she was standing up.

“Buffy Anne Summers,” announced Captain Caroline Walche the woman who'd been selected to interrogate Buffy, “the slayer,” Walche sneered as she looked Buffy up and down with a look of utter contempt on her face, “call those breasts?” Walche laughed quietly, “No wonder you can't keep a man...you're a freak Summers. What was the name of that soldier you let slip through your fingers?” Walche didn't wait for Buffy to reply, “Yes, Riley Finn...” Walche consulted her notes, “...he married someone else didn't he? He's done well for himself...not like you.”

Buffy stared at the wall above Walche's head and said nothing.

“Alright,” Walche shrugged, “I just want you to answer a few simple questions and then we can all go home...now, explain to me why you let your mother die?”

Buffy almost opened her mouth to utter an angry denial but managed to stop herself just in time.

“Too busy screwing one of your vampire boyfriends...Spike wasn't it?” Walche asked reasonably, “What is it with you and the undead, enjoy necrophilia do you?”

“Buffy Anne Summers, social security number 613-11-3224,” Buffy replied.

“Okay lets get back to your mother,” Walche turned over a page, “it says here that the paramedic reported that in his opinion if someone had been home to phone 911 there was a good chance that your mother would have lived...but hey,” Walche shrugged again, “you were out having a good time with this Spike guy, right?”

“Buffy Anne Summers, social security number 613-11-3224,” Buffy repeated.

“I don't suppose you liked your mother much,” Walche leaned back in her chair and put her hands behind her head as she watched Buffy's face closely, “After all she gave you that stupid name...I mean 'Buffy', only a drugged-up-hippy-yank would give her daughter a stupid name like that, bet she was high when she thought that one up...” Walche glanced at the papers on her desk again, “Obviously your father couldn't care less about you either, then or now.” Walche laughed, “My mum and dad love me, they're proud of what I do, could your parents say the same about you I wonder? If of course they were still alive or cared?”

“Buffy Anne Summers, social security number 613-11-3224,” Buffy said determined not to give this bitch the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

“All right don't want to talk about letting your mother die,” Walsh rested her hands on top of the folder, “I can understand that...now, maybe you can tell me why you didn't...what do you people call it? 'Dust', this Angelus guy as soon as you found out he was a vampire and before he'd killed, how many innocent people?” 

“Buffy Anne Summers, social security number 613-11-3224,” Buffy fought hard not to say anything, not to show any weakness.

“Oh, I see,” Walche placed a finger under a typed sentence on the top page of her notes, “I see you didn't even try and 'dust' the Mick bastard after he'd killed your Watcher's girlfriend, that must have made you really popular. I'm surprised that this Mister Giles didn't slot you right then and get himself a proper slayer...one who slayed vampires and not one that screwed them!”

“Buffy Anne Summers, social security number 613-11-3224,” Buffy sniffed hard trying not to cry, she knew how hard the death of Jenny Calendar had hit Giles, if she could go back and do it again she'd have dusted Angle the first time she'd seen his true face that night in her bedroom.

“But of course,” Walche sneered, “you were probably too busy having him screw your brains out, because it looks like,” Walche gestured to the papers on her desk, “that was all you cared about. As long as Buffy Anne Summers was getting some vampire cock in her cunt she didn't care who else died...isn't that right, Buffy?”

“Buffy Anne Summers, social security number 613-11-3224,” Buffy felt the tears running down her cheeks.

“Aww, diddums,” Walche smirked, “the big tough slayer's cwying...wake up Summers and smell the coffee,” Walche snapped angrily, “you're in deep shit, we've found out what you really are, a selfish brat who cares for no one but herself...my god,” Walche laughed contemptuously, “your sister must be so glad she's found someone who really loves her.”

“B-Buffy S-Summers...” Buffy sobbed unable to say anything else. 

“Obviously, I'm not going to get any sense out of you until you stop blubbering,” Walche collected her documents and put them back in her folder, “we'll talk again later.”

Walking out the door Walche signalled to the two Paras, who were waiting outside, to take Buffy back to her cell.

0=0=0=0

“Do you think she'll break,” Henno asked Maggie; they'd been watching the interrogation through a two way mirror.

“I honestly don't know,” Maggie replied, “From what I can gather the training the watchers gave their slayers was almost one-hundred percent combat related, I doubt Buffy even considered anything like this happening to her.”

“And not having her slayer powers, can't be helping,” Henno pointed out.

“True,” Maggie nodded, “talking of which I better give her another injection.”

“Yeah...” Henno gave Maggie a thoughtful look, “...second thoughts why don't you let me do it?”

“Frightened I won't give her the jab and she'll beat Walche to a bloody pulp?” Maggie asked.

“It's not so much that, but to be honest it had crossed my mind,” Henno admitted, “no...I know you and Summers were...involved.”

“You mean when we used to have red-hot-lesbian-monkey-sex?” Maggie replied with a smile.

“Something like that,” Henno sighed, “but, contrary to popular belief I'm not a complete bastard, I wouldn't make you do anything that would strain your loyalties.”

“No,” Maggie shook her head, “I'm okay with it, if you'd asked me that six months ago you might have got a different answer, but now, I know where I'm coming from...”

“Good to hear,” Henno nodded, “Was she any good?”

“Good?” Maggie gave Henno a puzzled look.

“Y'know,” Henno chuckled, “the lesbian-monkey-sex thing?”

“She was...” Maggie paused searching for the right words, “...very enthusiastic.”

“Y'don't say?” Henno smirked.

0=0=0=0

Losing track of time Buffy didn't know how long her interrogation lasted. After that first period she was taken back to her cell where the paras and the SAS instructors delighted in throwing buckets of icy water over her or holding a wet cloth over her nose and mouth so it felt like she was drowning. When they were feeling really jovial they used electric shock sticks on her taking extra special delight in using them on her breasts and between her legs. When they got bored they simply left her for hours in a stress position until it was time for her to talk to Captain Walche again. Buffy started to look forward to those moments in the interrogation room with Walche. While she was there no one was hurting or humiliating her...well at least not as much. Stoically, Buffy kept repeating her name and social security number back to Walche, but the Captain was very good at her job, she knew it was only a matter of time before she broke the slayer.

Time, was by now, less than an illusion to Buffy, it was simply a meaningless concept, this was her life, her world; she couldn't really believe there'd been anything before and she found it impossible to imagine anything after it. Close to her breaking point, she decided that if she wasn't freed after her next interrogation session she was going to quit, she'd had enough. It seemed that even slayers could only be pushed so far. The white noise stopped just before two sets of hands grabbed her and half carried, half dragged her back to the interrogation room. Placed on her feet, Buffy swayed with fatigue as she waited for the sack to be pulled off her head. 

“Buffy...Summers, s-social security number six-one-three...” Buffy mumbled as the sack came off her head and the bright light hurt her eyes; blinking through the tears that filled her eyes she saw Henno Garvie standing in front of her.

“What the fuck do you want?” Buffy asked dragging the very last vestiges of her defiance from the depths of her soul.

Walking around her, Henno took hold of Buffy's left hand and lifted it up, “No wedding ring,” he continued to walk around her until he was standing right in front of her again, “of course you're gay now aren't you?”

Buffy took a deep breath, “Buffy Anne Summers, social security number 613-11-3224.” 

“You know, Maggie was only acting under orders when she pretended to love you?” Henno pointed out quietly, “We all had a good laugh about it in the Sergeant's Mess afterwards...the stories she told us about you...you know the one I like the best?”

“Buffy Anne Summers, social security number 613-11-3224,” Buffy muttered near total exhaustion.

“It's about the Screw you had killed for raping you in prison,” Henno explained, “Don't get me wrong, I'm with you all the way on that one...and getting a vampire to do the killing, now that was inspired.”

“Buffy Anne Summers, social security number 613-11-3224,” Buffy repeated, it was like the only words she could say now.

“Are you up for another sixteen hours of this?” Henno asked, “I'm guessing you're not, I'm guessing you're not good enough...” Henno turned away and walked across the room to lean against the far wall, “...I bet right now you'd open your legs and fuck the entire Brigade of Guards if I offered you a bacon sarnie, a cup of cocoa and a soft bed, because basically you're a slut.”

“Buffy Anne Summers, social security number 613-11-3224,” Buffy replied weakly.

“Oh do us all a favour and give up!” Henno yelled as he walked across the room and stuck his face up close to Buffy's, “You're NOT good enough! You've let your mates down all your life Buffy, you're just a selfish little whore,” Henno stopped yelling and shook his head sadly, “Sorry, no, that's not fair.” he said as he started to pace around behind Buffy, “You've come a long way in the two weeks you've been here,” Henno reached into his pocket and pulled out his white armband before slipping it onto his left arm. “You at least tried and worked hard...once you got the broom handle from out of your arse, I can't fault you on that.”

Buffy couldn't believe it, she'd failed? But she hadn't broken, she'd said nothing, she'd only thought about giving up, she'd not said a word...but perhaps... Perhaps Henno Garvie could see it in her eyes, the eyes were the window to the soul after all. Maybe he'd seen something in her, something she was lacking, something that she didn't even suspect herself?

“It's nothing personal,” Henno came to stand in front of Buffy, “I'm very sorry...” he sighed heavily, “...but you've passed.”

At first Buffy didn't believe what she was hearing, this was another of Henno's cruel tricks, her eyes fell on the white armband and it took her a moment or two to work out if it was on his left arm.

“I passed?” Buffy still didn't quite believe it, “So whatever happens now I won and you lost, you can't take that away from me, right?”

“Although it pains me to have to say it,” Henno nodded, “if you were a British subject and actually in the army I'd be giving you your SAS beret about now.”

“Good,” pulling back her arm Buffy punched Henno in the mouth; of course as she still didn't have her powers back it probably hurt her more than it hurt him, but it made her feel better.

“I deserved that,” Henno wiped his mouth and looked at the spot of blood on his hand, “lets get you out of here.”

The next half hour or so was a dream of hot showers, hot tea and bacon and egg sarnies. Someone even gave her some proper clothes to wear before taking her outside into the watery autumn sunshine. As she stepped out of the Lubyanka she saw lines of men in camouflaged uniforms and just for a second she imagined this was all a dream and when she woke up she'd be back in her cell. Buffy didn't think any of it was real until someone started to clap. Others quickly joined in, there was even some cheering as the men who'd made her life a misery for the last, god knew how long, wished her well.

Buffy Anne Summers, social security number 613-11-3224, had survived the worst the best in the world could throw at her and for most of that time she'd been stripped of her slayer powers. Just at that moment and possibly for the first time in her life, Buffy felt about twelve feet tall and she was already planning to send Faith and Kennedy on one of these courses as soon as possible!

The End.


End file.
